


Knowledge Wisdom Truth

by koukacs



Category: Digimon - All Media Types, Digimon Adventure
Genre: AU, Gen, not the adventure universe and not the universe of the song of love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-17
Updated: 2016-05-17
Packaged: 2018-06-09 03:14:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 18,890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6887329
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/koukacs/pseuds/koukacs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Taichi disappeared and Sora left, Koushiro and Tentomon leave the group to search for Gennai. But someone has other plans for the boy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Luck

**Author's Note:**

> Digimon does not belong to me.

**Chapter 1: Luck**

It had been a while since Taichi and Metalgreymon had vanished after defeating Etemon. The children were still camping at the desert, without a consensus about what they should do. Koushiro had suggested that they should go look for Gennai, hoping that the elder had some clue about Taichi's location. Unfortunately, nobody else agreed since no one knew where Gennai could be found.

In a certain night, when Koushiro was already sleeping, he was awakened by a strange voice that seemed to whisper in his mind.

"In the mountains direction, you shall find someone to answer your questions."

"Huh?" The boy opened his eyes without understanding. He took a look around him, but all that he saw was his friends sleeping. However, he soon realized that Yamato and Sora were talking to each other near the bonfire. They didn't notice that he was awake. Koushiro tried to sleep again, but it was impossible.

"We should leave this place and look for Taichi." Sora told Yamato.

"We don't have any clue that indicates a direction to go. We don't even know if Taichi is still..." The other didn't finish the sentence.

"I understand that, but I can't just sit here and do nothing. I've known Taichi for years; he's one of my best friends!"

"He is my friend too. But now that he's not here, we're responsible for the others. We can't go looking for him without a plan."

"... Koushiro-kun suggested that we should look for Gennai."

Koushiro bit his lower lip when he heard his name being mentioned.

"That's just as stupid as go looking for Taichi without a plan!" Yamato stated. Koushiro paled a little.

"But, Koushiro is smart. He's the smartest one among us!"

"I know he's smart, you didn't understand what I meant."

"So explain yourself better."

Yamato sighed before explaining.

"I know that Koshiro has good intentions and that he's the most intelligent person in the group. But, despite that, you can't forget that he's just a child."

_Child?_ Koushiro thought about that word, trying to understand what exactly Yamato meant.

"We're all children, Yamato-kun. And Koushiro-kun is just a year younger than us."

"I know that! The thing is... you know how he is when he's trying to discover new things, don't you? Or when he's working with that computer."

"Well, he kind of forgets everything else."

"Yeah. Koushiro spends a lot of time thinking in theories and plans, but he doesn't take in consideration the reality."

_What?_ Koushiro was paralyzed by those words.

"Maybe it's because he doesn't pay too much attention in reality that he doesn't see certain things." Yamato added, "He doesn't really comprehend that if his calculations fail... that if he commits a mistake, he'll put us all in danger. He has good intentions, but he doesn't deeply understand the sort of responsibility he has in the group. He's still a child."

"So that's why you don't want us to go look for Gennai like he said? Because we would be in danger if we did so? Koushiro-kun's plans and theories have kept us alive until now."

"I know that, Sora, I'm thankful to him, but you have to admit it."

"Admit what?"

"If we're still alive until now, that's also because we've been unbelievably lucky."

_Lucky..._ Koushiro frowned. _All that time..._

The boy passed the adventures they had had until that moment through his mind.

_When we were attacked, our Digimon defended us. Even in the most critical situation, we were saved by the evolution. No, wait, when Tentomon evolved to Kabuterimon, it was thanks to the codes I had found and deciphered. It would have been impossible to defeat him if I hadn't thought about hitting his injured leg... but if Jyou-san hadn't mentioned "weak point" I probably wouldn't have thought about that. I was able to help Mimi-san in the Maze... but she had gotten lost because of me in the first place and I had to go rescue her without a plan in the end. I had figured out that we could only leave the Digital World if we defeated all the enemies... we could have died in the battle against Devimon if Angemon hadn't appeared. We were lucky._

Koushiro closed his eyes and turned his body to the opposite side, not paying attention to the conversation anymore.

_I had figured out that the Digimon evolved when the partner is in danger... Taichi-san forced Agumon to evolve and it ended really bad. Luckily nobody got harmed._

_I not only didn't think that it could be dangerous to enter an unknown ship in the desert, but I wasn't able to think in anything to let us out of the situation either. Luckily Sora-san and Mimi-san hadn't been caught... and luckily there was a giant cactus in the desert to get rid of the ship._

_Luckily Taichi-san appeared just when Yamato-san and I were been chased by that Tyranomon._

Koushiro's body trembled a little.

_But I was useful in the pyramid, right? I was able to locate Sora-san and help Taichi-san to cross the electrified web! But Sora-san had been kidnapped because I had received that e-mail... and I agreed in going to help Nanomon. I should have found that suspicious. Everything... even Taichi-san disappearing... it was all caused by that e-mail. Thinking about it, I've brought many problems to the others and if they're okay now it's more because of luck than because of me._

Koushiro felt deep sadness. _How foolish have I been... all this time I actually thought... I really believed I was useful._ In the morning, he was awakened by Yamato's concerned voice.

"Where's Sora? She's not here!"

"Yamato-kun, calm down! She mustn't be far from here." Jyou tried to calm him, but the blond boy was too worried.

"Onii-chan, I think I saw her leaving." Takeru said. Yamato grabbed him by the arms and asked, "Are you sure?"

"Not entirely... but I think she said something about looking for Taichi-san."

Yamato let go of Takeru after hearing that. He went silent for a moment and clenched his fists.

"Yamato-san, Sora-san will be all right, she's with Piyomon, remember?" Mimi said.

"Yeah, I think you're right... it's time to leave the desert already." The blond boy replied.

They walked for almost an entire day, having a few pauses. Nobody knew for sure if Yamato's resolution could have something to do with finding Sora. When it was starting to get dark, Koushiro saw something in the distance.

"Are those things mountains?" The red haired kid asked, pointing to small points in the horizon in his left.

"I think so." Tentomon replied.

Koushiro frowned, remembering what that voice had told him. _**"In the mountains direction, you shall find someone to answer your questions."**_

"Why are you staring at the mountains so seriously, Koushiro-kun?" Mimi asked.

"I... I'll go to the mountains. I'll go look for Gennai there."

Koushiro could feel the others staring at him in pure shock.

"Are you out of your mind? There are kilometers of desert between this spot and those mountains!" Jyou alerted.

"Why the mountains? Gennai can be in any place, why are you going to look for him in the mountains?" Mimi asked concerned.

"I'm sorry." Koushiro muttered without turning to the others, "I know this is abrupt, but I don't have any other plan, this is all I can do. You don't need to go with me, though."

"What? You can't go alone!" Jyou almost screamed.

"Why do you want to leave us, Koushiro-san?" Takeru questioned.

"Let him go." Yamato said. Koushiro turned to him, surprised.

"B-but..." Mimi tried to protest, but Yamato continued to talk.

"If this is what you really want to do, Koushiro, we don't have the right to stop you. But, please, be careful." Yamato said with a serious tone.

"Thank you." Koushiro replied, smiling softly. "I think I should go now, it's better to walk at night, when it's not hot."

The boy walked away from them, but he heard a familiar voice approaching him.

"Wait for me, Koushiro-han! Don't walk so quickly!" Tentomon scolded the boy, who gave him a surprised look.

"What? Don't tell me you thought I would let you go alone!" The digimon said.

Koushiro avoided to look at Tentomon's eyes.

"Sorry for deciding this without asking your opinion."

"That's fine! If this is important to you, I'll support you the best way I can!" Tentomon said enthusiastically. They both walked into the desert.

_I hope I don't regret this... that voice just doesn't leave my mind._

A little far from there, a figure was drinking a glass of wine while looking at the desert. A carriage was behind him.

"Koushiro is already coming to me." He smiled maliciously.


	2. Desert

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Koushiro and Tentomon nearly die in the desert but someone comes to their rescue.

**Chapter 2: Desert**

Koushiro walked almost the entire night, with Tentomon flying at his side. They made some quick pauses to rest. When the sun was about to rise, Tentomon suggested they should find some place to sleep. Koushiro agreed since it was not a good idea to walk under the hot sun of the desert without water or food.

"We should go look for an oasis. Do you think you can evolve?" Koushiro asked a bit worried.

"Yes, I'm not that tired." Tentomon replied, evolving to Kabuterimon. They searched for an oasis for some hours. Even if Kabuterimon didn't complain, Koushiro knew he had to be tired. The long search was making the boy anxious. _How long can Kabuterimon keep flying?_

Fortunately, they found a small oasis with a lake, surrounded by trees with fruits. When they landed, Kabuterimon went back to his child form. After eating and drinking water, Tentomon lay under the shadow of a tree.

"Koushiro-han, you should get some sleep too. Plus, you haven't eaten much." He told the other, who was collecting some fruits and putting them into an improvised leaf bag.

"Don't worry about that. I'm planning on staying awake while you sleep, just in case some dangerous Digimon shows up." Koushiro said calmly.

"But... you're tired too..." Tentomon tried to protest. Koushiro interrupted him politely.

"Don't worry, I can sleep later." The boy said with a soft smile, which didn't really convince Tentomon.

"Okay, but wake me up soon, so you can sleep a little before we get moving." The bug told the boy. Koushiro did nothing more than agree with a weak smile.

_This feeling again... sometimes I wanted to be able to read Koushiro-han's mind. I'd like him not to hide things from me._

After Tentomon slept, Koushiro took a yellow fruit that he had never seen before and ate it. _It tastes good._ He stared at the leaf bag thoughtfully. _Even if I split the fruits in two bags for me and Tentomon, it won't be possible to carry many of them. Maybe we could do it with Kabuterimon... no, evolution would be too exhaustive for Tentomon, especially without a guarantee that we'll find another oasis soon._

The boy held his head with both hands _. We can't carry too many fruits and we may not find more soon. The only option is to ration food._

Koushiro glanced at the asleep Tentomon with guilt. _It's my fault that we're in this situation now, just because I couldn't get that phrase out of my head. Am I losing my mind or what? I didn't even have courage to tell Tentomon what motivated me to choose this path! We might actually end up dying in this desert because of me._

The words he had heard from Yamato were haunting him again. _Luck... this time I can't count on luck. I have to take the responsibility... especially for Tentomon's sake._

When Tentomon woke up, it was already the end of the afternoon.

"Koushiro-han! You were supposed to wake me up, it's already getting dark!" Tentomon spoke angrily. Koushiro was sitting next to him.

"Sorry, Tentomon, I kind of fell asleep after you slept, and I've just woken up a few minutes ago. I didn't mean to do that, I'm really sorry." Koushiro lied. He hadn't slept at all. _Tentomon needed to sleep and I couldn't let someone dangerous attack us... I couldn't sleep._

Koushiro bowed politely, without really looking at Tentomon's eyes, which the insect noticed. The two of them walked forward the entire night and Tentomon realized that Koushiro was slower than he used to be. After some hours, they stopped to eat some of the fruits they had been carrying in leaf bags. The redhead took a small orange fruit while his partner took three big red ones.

"Koushiro-han, are you going to eat only that?" Tentomon asked worried, the boy forced a smiled and answered:

"I'm not that hungry, don't worry."

Tentomon didn't know what to do; he stared sadly at the boy. "Okay, then. But promise me you'll eat more when the sun rises."

"Okay."

When the sun rose, Tentomon evolved to Kabuterimon to look for a new oasis. Koushiro climbed on his friend's head before he flew. They searched for several hours, but there was no sight of any oasis. Koushiro could barely keep his eyes opened. He was almost fainting because of the hunger, but he didn't want to touch the fruits next to him. _Tentomon needs them more than I do... he's the one who's always carrying me and taking care of me, he needs them more than I do... especially if we don't find more food... I must save the fruits for him..."_

 _Uhm? What is that thing coming to us?_ _A sand storm?_ Kabuterimon couldn't believe in what he was seeing. The sand storm was huge and had appeared suddenly in front of them. There wasn't any way to escape.

"KOUSHIRO-HAN, HOLD ON THERE!" He yelled to the boy a few seconds before the storm stroke them. Without energy to hold on Kabuterimon, Koushiro was thrown by the wind.

 _What happened?_ The boy wondered when he woke up on the hot sand, 20 minutes later. There was no sign of the digimon or the fruits, for Koushiro's despair.

"Damn it, damn it... This can't be happening! TENTOMON!" Koushiro called the bug, getting on his feet with difficulty and forcing himself to walk, even though his entire body was trembling. Soon, he heard Tentomon's voice at the distance. He went over that direction and found his friend stuck in a strange brown plant with thorns.

"Tentomon! I'm going to free you right now!"

"Be cautious, Koushiro-han... this plant is the 'desert urtiga,' it has a poison that paralyzes you... don't touch the thorns."

"What?" Koushiro's eyes widened in fear. Tentomon had been visibly hurt by the thorns, so he must have been affected by the poison. With caution, the boy managed to free Tentomon, who wasn't able to move anymore.

"This poison... does it only paralyze you or...?"

"Without the antidote... I'll probably die by the sunset." Tentomon whispered. He saw the boy's face turning pale and panic appearing in his eyes, which made him feel terrible.

"Koushiro-han, you have to leave me behind-" Tentomon was saying, but Koushiro grabbed him and put the bug on his back, starting to walk again.

"I'm not going to abandon you here. We'll find the antidote and heal you."

"You don't even know what the antidote is."

"I'll ask someone, if we find a village, we can-"

"Koushiro-han, stop doing this! If there was any village nearby, we'd have seen it while we were in the sky!"

The human didn't reply. He kept moving slowly with Tentomon on his back.

"You're smart, Koushiro-han. A lot smarter than me. If even I realized that you can't help me, you must understand it too."

"I'll find a way..."

"Why are you doing this? Why are you lying to me and to yourself like this? I beg you, leave me behind." Tentomon began to cry, completely impotent. Koushiro kept walking forward. _Tentomon is so heavy... has he always been this heavy or is it just because I haven't eaten or slept properly? I sacrificed myself to save that food and it's all gone. Tentomon is injured and I'm the only one who can help him... but I'm so tired... and it's so hot here... I'm hungry and thirsty... I don't know for how long I can keep walking. I'm like this now because I wanted to help him... and now I can't. I'm so pathetic._

After one hour, Koushiro fell on the sand. He tried to get up, to move, but it was impossible. He had reached his limit. _Move, Tentomon needs me... move... I have to continue... I can't fail... I can't fail..._

"K-Koushiro-han, talk to me, please, talk to me... are you alright?" Tentomon asked in a very weak voice. All he could hear was the other's sobs.

"Sorry... s-sorry... this is my fault... sorry..." Koushiro began to whisper among sobs.

"Stop saying this, you've done nothing wrong." Tentomon tried to comfort Koushiro, feeling his own heart cracking. _I was supposed to protect him. It was my responsibility to protect Koushiro-han... to take care of him... I'm so useless._

Tentomon began to cry again, hearing Koushiro apologizing, unable to reply anything anymore. The hours passed and they both collapsed, Tentomon was still on the boy's back.

"Boy." After what felt like decades, Koushiro heard a voice calling him, but he was unable to open his eyes.

"If you want it, I can save you and your friend."

 _Save us? Really?_ Koushiro thought he was dreaming.

"If you pay the price, I can do that. Are you willing to pay it?"

In an almost inaudible whisper, Koushiro said a weak "yes."

 _Excellent_ , the other thought, satisfied. _You belong to me now, Koushiro._


	3. The price

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Merchant introduces himself to Koushiro and tells him the price for his partner's life.

**Chapter 3: The price**

A weak scent of vanilla awakened the asleep redhead. He opened his eyes and realized he was lying in a comfortable bed with white sheets. The room where Koushiro had been brought to was dark, but he could distinguish some bookshelves and a closed door. He walked to the door and opened it carefully, entering a long corridor with a weak blue light at its extremity. As he walked, he realized that the light was some sort of sphere floating in the air, a sphere of the size of a beach ball. When Koushiro got close enough to it, he saw that there was something inside the sphere, better said, someone.

"Tentomon?" He asked frightened. His bug friend seemed to sleep inside that thing. Koushiro was about to grab it, but a door at his left side was opened and someone pulled him to an illuminated room.

The place was huge and circular, like a saloon. There were books everywhere, forming real towers. Tables and bookshelves next to the walls had many bottles, statues and exotic objects that Koushiro was sure he had never seen in his life.

The individual who had grabbed his arm had, now, let go of it. The boy looked at the other and noticed that he had the size of a grown man. Entirely dressed in large gray clothes that covered his body, including gloves and boots, the individual had a heavy and long coat with hood and a scarf. His face was hidden behind a white mask without any hole for the eyes or to breathe.

"I apologize for doing that, Koushiro," he said calmly while sitting on a chair and pointing a sofa for the boy, who sat on it reluctantly, "but if you had touched the sphere, your friend would have died."

"What?" Koushiro felt as if he had been petrified.

"Don't worry, he's out of danger right now. I've stopped his time flown."

"His time flown? What do you mean?" The boy asked, frowning. The other stood up and walked to a bookshelf, from where he took a whine bottle and a glass. Then, he returned to his seat and put the objects in front of the boy.

"If I explained to you how I'm able to stop time, Koushiro, you probably wouldn't be able to afford the price. It's a very expensive information." He said in the same calm tone from before.

"You... sell information?"

"Yes, and other things too. You can call me Merchant."

"Merchant? What's your real name? Who are you?" Koushiro asked quickly.

"Neither your freedom or your life are enough to pay for this information. You should be careful about what you ask, Koushiro."

"How do you know my name?" Koushiro was anxious, something about that Merchant bothered him. The Merchant merely opened the bottle and filled the glass with whine, handing it to the boy after that.

"Let's do this, if you drink the liquid of this bottle, I'll tell you everything I can." The other spoke nicely, but Koushiro was finding that suspicious.

"I can't drink this, I'm a child."

"I know. You're the kind of person who never break rules, so this very idea must make you shiver. You really don't want to do that."

"If you know that I don't want to drink, why are you offering this to me?" Koushiro was getting annoyed.

"Because you don't want to drink it. It would be like a sacrifice to you, like a price. So if you drink it, I can consider the price for these previous informations paid. I'm been nice to you, it's just a small sacrifice, don't you think so?"

Koushiro couldn't trust the other and the Merchant noticed that.

"If I wanted you dead, I would have let you in the desert instead of taking you into my carriage and giving you whine, don't you think so?"

_Carriage? This huge place is a carriage? How come?_

"What do you gain if I drink this?"

"It's not about what I gain, but what sacrifice you make. Your friend is frozen in time and he's going to stay like that if you don't pay the price for his life and I can't tell you anything if you don't sacrifice anything."

Koushiro studied the glass for a while; it could be a trap, but it was the only way to help Tentomon. He drank it. He felt as if the liquid burned his insides and let the glass fall and break, gasping. The Merchant took the bottle and put it on the table.

"What... was that... thing?" Koushiro questioned with difficulty.

"My special whine. Just a thing that will not let you pass any information I give you without my permission."

_He fooled me_. Koushiro thought, angry, trying to deal with the pain in his throat.

"Now we can talk," the Merchant said cheerfully, "Tentomon's state was so bad that there was no medicine that could help him. The only way to save his life is by erasing what he suffered. I can do that turning back the time in his body until before he was hurt. His memories won't be affected."

"And for you to do that... what's the price?" Koushiro asked, still in pain.

"You'll only have to do a job for me, a tiny thing." The Merchant said maliciously.

Some time later, Tentomon woke up. He realized that he was being carried by Koushiro, on the boy's back. In front of them, there was an immense gray mountain

"Koushiro-han? What happened? I feel good, did you get the antidote?"

"Y-yeah, nothing to worry about, I found a mer-"

Koushiro gasped and coughed, he felt as if there was fire in his throat. Tentomon was worried.

"What happened? Are you alright?"

"Yes, I-I'm good. I met someone who had the medicine by coincidence. He even brought us here. We were lucky." Koushiro said, forcing a smile. Tentomon could feel that something was terribly wrong. At a small house at the bottom of the mountain, a tiny Digimon saw the two of them coming.

"Why is there always someone without luck to come to this place?" He wondered, "It doesn't matter. I have to keep my promise to my master."


	4. Trust me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Koushiro initiates the mission the Merchant gave him.

" _You don't need to be so upset about this task I just gave you, Koushiro. In the end, you'll find in that mountain what you seek for."_

**Chapter 4: Trust me**

"What are you thinking so deeply about, Koushiro-han?" Tentomon questioned. He, who was already able to fly, was bothered by the boy's serious expression. _I never saw him so concerned before. What can he be hiding from me?_

"No big deal." Koushiro replied vaguely. _I wonder what the Merchant meant by what I seek for... I have the worst feeling possible about that "task"... but there's nothing I can do about it. It's the price I have to pay, for Tentomon's sake._

Suddenly, when they approached the bottom of the mountain, little fire balls were thrown against Koushiro and Tentomon, who dodged them in time. From the mountain in front of them, a tiny black Digimon ran toward them and jumped in Koushiro's direction, but Tentomon grabbed him in the air before he reached the boy. Both Digimon fought on the ground.

"Why are you attacking us?" Tentomon asked.

"You can't get any closer to this mountain, LEAVE NOW!" The other yelled.

"Tentomon, off him, please." Koushiro asked, Tentomon agreed reluctantly. The boy approached the other and questioned, "Who are you?"

"My name is Impmon." He replied.

"Why do you want us to leave?"

Impmon stood up and cleaned the sand he had on his body. He gave Koushiro and Tentomon a serious look and said, "If you don't want to die, leave this place."

Koushiro and Tentomon were astonished, Impmon walked back to the mountain.

"Wait!" Tentomon shouted, "We're looking for an old man called Gennai, do you know anything about him?"

"I'm the only one here," Impmon replied, turning to the others, "Whoever you're looking for, you won't find him in this mountain!"

 _But I must go to this mountain. What should I do?_ Koushiro wondered, nervous.

"We're tired and hungry, my friend has just recovered from an injury. Could you please at least let us stay with you for the night?" Koushiro asked, bowing. Tentomon decided to bow as well. _Koushiro-han must be really tired and hungry... he has carried me, after all._ Impmon, in the end, let them stay in his little house at the mountain's bottom until the next morning.

"Do not touch anything!" Impmon ordered, when the three of them crossed the old wooden door of a poorly preserved yellow hut. The hut was almost totally empty inside. There were just some books spread on the floor. At a wall at the opposite side of the place, which Koushiro realized it was actually part of the rocky mountain, there was a large drawing of a shadow inside a circle surrounded by hieroglyphs. The shadow, that seemed to have the form of some mysterious Digimon, was restrained by chains.

"What is that drawing? It's scary." Tentomon commented.

"That is the reason why this place is dangerous." Impmon replied, taking a seat among his books, "You can say it's like a gate to a terrible place. Everyone who tries to decipher the code and goes there, ends up dying."

 _Dying..._ That word bothered Koushiro deeply, which Impmon noticed.

"This code is extremely difficult to be deciphered, though. My master took a whole year to break it and she was the most intelligent Digimon I ever met." The tiny black creature said, thoughtfully, staring at the drawing.

"Where's your master now?" Tentomon questioned in a friendly tone. Impmon merely looked down.

"Can't you explain better what is there at the other side of the gate?" Koushiro asked, putting all his effort in making his voice sound calm. Impmon studied the boy for a while. _What's up with him? I have the feeling he's going to do something stupid with the gate. What am I thinking? These two will only stay here tonight. There's no way they could break the code in one night._

"A long time ago, in a period known as 'the Dark Age,' the Digital World was in the middle of a terrible war." Impmon began to narrate, "A group of powerful Digimon, known as Demon Lords, was behind the catastrophes that took place in that time. According to my master, one of those Demon Lords was sealed in a separated dimension, accessible through a sanctuary. The gate in the wall leads to the sanctuary. And everybody who went there died."

"Why would someone go to a place where a demon is?" Tentomon asked, shivering, "It's nonsense, right, Koushiro-han?"

Koushiro was looking at the void, lost in his own thoughts. The worry in his face alarmed Tentomon. Impmon didn't talk about that anymore, preferring to ask about his guests' adventures. When the night came, Impmon shared a vegetable soup he had prepeared with the visitants.

"I think it's kind of late. We should sleep." Impmon suggested, after they finished the dinner.

"Are you just going to sleep and leave us without supervision?" Koushiro asked abruptly.

"I don't see why not. Nobody can decipher that code in one night." Impmon said, lying on the floor. The others did the same. Koushiro turned his back to Tentomon, which made him face the wall of the drawing. Tentomon was looking at the boy's back, feeling his heart tight.

"Koushiro-han..."

"What is it, Tentomon?"

"If you had a problem, you'd tell me, wouldn't you? Because we're good friends, right?" Tentomon's voice was almost cracking, "You... you always say that you're fine... that I don't need to worry, but..."

"Tentomon, do you trust me?" Koushiro asked in a whisper.

"Of course I trust you, Koushiro-han... why are you asking me this?"

"Never mind... it's better if we sleep now." He replied. Koushiro stayed quiet for a long time, until he was sure the other two were sleeping, and stood up. He went to the wall and touched the drawing

" _I'll tell you this until you decorate it, Koushiro. When you find the drawing in the mountain, you'll be able to break that code. You cannot make any mistake, am I clear?"_

Koushiro began to whisper a sequence of words and the circle of the drawing started to glow. Soon, the red light involved him as he continued to whisper the words.

"Huh?" Impmon heard the human's voice and woke up. When he saw what the boy was doing, he jumped in his direction, yelling "NO!" but some sort of invisible barrier didn't allow him to reach the boy.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING? STOP THIS!" He cried in despair, punching the invisible barrier. Tentomon woke up due to the noisy.

"What's going on?" He questioned, before seeing, in horror, the scene.

"Someone taught him how to break the code! He's opening the gate to the sanctuary!" Impmon screamed, still punching the invisible barrier. After Koushiro finished to whisper, a dark hole appeared where the drawing had been before.

"Koushiro-han, what are you doing? Why are you doing this?" Tentomon asked in despair, trying to reach his partner somehow. Without turning his face to the insect, Koushiro spoke:

"Tentomon, I'm so sorry... I promise you everything will be okay at the end. So, please..."

The red light took the shape of chains and began to pull Koushiro into the hole. Before being completely dragged into it, he looked at Tentomon. Tears were falling from Koushiro's eyes, but he forced a smile to his friend and added "... trust me."

And then, the boy vanished and the hole disappeared. The drawing was back to the wall. Impmon began to punch the floor in pure fury. Tentomon stared at the drawing, in pain.

"KOUSHIRO-HAN!"

A little far from there, Yamato, Takeru, Tsunomon and Patamon were walking towards the mountain, following the signal of the digivice. They had met with Taichi and Jyou and had separated, so each group could follow a different signal. However, the signal vanished mysteriously at that moment.

"What is this?" Yamato asked worried.

"What happened, Onii-chan?"

"The signal disappeared. I'm with a bad feeling. Let's hurry up!"

 _Where am I?_ Koushiro asked himself when he was thrown into a light blue room. It was a circular room with 12 glass doors on the wall. In its center, there was a ten meters tall black door, connected to nothing, closed with red chains. On the white floor, around the black door, many symbols formed six concentric circles. Koushiro didn't have time to better examine the place, someone pointed a gun to his neck.

"So another fool showed up here." A voice said behind the human.

Koushiro lifted his hands and replied, "I assume you're Vademon. A Digimon with tentacles and a big brain, according to the one who sent me here."

"Who sent you here, kid?" Vademon was a bit nervous. Koushiro turned to him before answering.

"I was allowed to inform you that the one who sent me here was the Merchant."

Vademon's eyes widened in pure shock. "The Merchant sent you here? Why?"

Koushiro took a breath, he was trembling a little. _I have to do this._

"The Merchant told me to tell you... that I'm here to help you to free the Demon Lord of Greed, sealed since the end f the Dark Age: Barbamon."


	5. he Shinigami

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The true nature of Koushiro's job.

**Chapter 5: The Shinigami**

Tentomon had punched the wall with all his power for hours, but it was useless. Nothing happened at all. The insect was falling into deep despair and couldn't hold the tears.

"Isn't there anything you can do in order to open the gate?" Tentomon questioned Impmon, who just avoided to look at him and replied:

"I'm not supposed to open the gate."

Tentomon turned to the other, without understanding.

"What do you mean, Impmon? Didn't you say that there was a demon at the other side? Koushiro-han must be in danger now!"

"He went there knowing the risk. As far as we know, his intention is probably to free Barbamon, which makes the boy an enemy." Impmon was saying, but Tentomon jumped on him and smacked him hardly.

"What are you doing, you stupid insect?" Impmon inquired, annoyed, punching Tentomon back.

"Don't you dare call Koushiro-han an enemy! I WILL NOT TOLERATE THAT!" Tentomon threatened the other. During their fight, they rolled to the outside of the hut.

"Are you telling me that you didn't find his attitude suspicious? It was obvious that he was plotting something!" Impmon accused.

"If that's what you thought, then why didn't you do anything to stop him?" Tentomon questioned in fury.

"I didn't do anything because I didn't think someone had already taught that boy how to break the code!" Impmon answered, punching Tentomon one last time. A ball of air was shot against him from the sky, which made Impmon be thrown to the front, away from Tentomon.

"Tentomon! What's happening?" Tentomon heard a familiar voice talking to him. He took a glance at the bottom of the mountain and saw Yamato, Takeru and Tsunomon coming to where he was. Patamon was flying above him.

"You guys…" Tentomon muttered. Takeru quickly approached the insect in order to exam his wounds.

"Why were you fighting that other Digimon, Tentomon? Where's Koushiro?" Yamato asked, but Tentomon, after hearing Koushiro's name, instead of answering, shed tears. Impmon stood up and walked to Tentomon.

"Did you and that human boy meet someone during your trip?" The tiny black Digimon inquired seriously.

"Since Koushiro-han and I left the group, we were alone all the time." Tentomon said, wiping the tears.

"There must have been someone who instructed your friend with the information to break the code at the wall. Think harder! What happened in the last days?" Impmon questioned. Yamato and the others weren't understanding the situation.

"I had gotten hurt by desert urtiga… I passed out and then, when I woke up, Koushiro-han told me that someone had given him the medicine." Tentomon narrated, slowly.

"Did the boy tell you who gave him the medicine?" Impmon asked, seriously.

"No. He tried to, but he gasped when he was about to say… I think he did say a part of the name… a _mer_."

Impmon's eyes grew wide because of the shock. Then, he went to his hut in a hurry and, after entering the place, he began to search for something among the books.

Tentomon and the others followed him.

"What are you doing, Impmon?" The insect asked.

"I'm looking for my master's diary, where she wrote the way to break the code a long time ago. After I find it, I can open the gate and we can go look for the red-haired human." Impmon replied.

Tentomon looked at him, astonished, asking "But… why now?"

"If the one behind this is that guy, I just can't let he do what he wants. I wouldn't be able to face my master if I did so." Impmon stated, with fury in his eyes.

Meanwhile, at the sanctuary, Vademon had led Koushiro to a large library, where he pointed to a desk and a chair.

"In order to free Lord Barbamon, you must discover how to break the code written in the concentric circles around that door. The key to break the code can only be found in this library, which used to belong to Lord Barbamon." Vademon explained while the boy took a seat.

"There have been many individuals who have broken the code?" Koushiro asked in a controlled tone of voice, glancing at a bookcase nearby.

"Only the most intelligent Digimon were able to break the code at the mountain. Doing the same thing with this one was not such a difficult task for them. 99 individuals who came here had success in breaking the code." Vademon replied, taking a book that Koushiro was staring at, opening it and giving it to the boy, "Start with this book, page 35."

"I don't understand," Koushiro finally found the words he was looking for, "if 99 Digimon broke the code that seals the Demon Lord, how come Barbamon is still imprisoned?"

"Well," Vademon gave him a mischievous smile as he answered, "The seal that is imprisoning Lord Barbamon is very special. The process of breaking the code was elaborated originally as a way to get rid of my master forever. When someone breaks the code, this individual is sent to the dimension where Barbamon is trapped in and has to prove that he's wiser than the prisoner. If the individual proves it, then Barbamon will be destroyed forever. However, if the individual fails, he or she will be eaten alive by Barbamon and his or her soul will be imprisoned inside my master for the rest of his life, experiencing great pain. Every time a soul is eaten by Barbamon, he becomes stronger. Once he eats the 100th soul, he'll break free. He can't try to break free before that, though."

Koushiro felt extremely anxious, but didn't say a single word about it. Instead, he inquired:

"So all the Digimon who broke the code had the purpose to defeat Barbamon?"

"Some of them, but the major part was just trying to escape the sanctuary."

"Escape? Couldn't they just leave?"

"No. If you follow me, I'll show you why not." Vademon said. He led Koushiro through a path between two tall bookshelves. The path ended at the middle of the library. There, on top of a one meter tall rock pillar, there was a small statue of a mysterious creature totally covered by a black cloak.

"That is the Shinigami statue which guards this sanctuary. As you must know, Shinigami means God of Death," Vademon told Koushiro, "Anyone in a radius of 200 meters is put under the statue's curse. Once you're cursed, you must always be in a radius of 200 meters from the statue, otherwise the Shinigami will kill you in 48 hours and completely erase your soul."

Koushiro trembled a little after hearing that, but didn't make any commentary. After that, Vademon left the library, instructing the boy to work hard. Alone, Koushiro put both hands on his head and got lost on his thoughts.

**Flash-back**

"It's a very simple job what I have for you, Koushiro." The Merchant told the boy, taking from a nearby bookshelf a black knife, a pen and a silver ring, putting them on a table later, "You're going to find a small statue of a Shinigami in a sanctuary, at the top of a pillar. Once you find it, you'll write a code I'm going to teach you around the pillar with this pen. After you do so, you'll put the ring at the top of the statue."

"Why?" Koushiro questioned, intrigued. The Merchant took the ring and put it at the top of a lamp behind him. For Koushiro's surprise, the lamp was sucked into the ring, returning moments later, after the Merchant made a movement.

"This ring sucks things to a private dimension I created, you're going to put the statue in it." The Merchant explained, "You can even put the knife and the pen in the ring, so Vademon won't notice them when he finds you."

"Vademon?"

"Don't worry, Koushiro. I'm going to explain everything about that guy soon." The Merchant had a happy tone of voice that really freaked the child out. The boy had innumerous questions he wanted to ask, but he feared that he would have to pay another heavy price to get those answers. _I have no choice but to trust him_ , he thought.

"About the knife," The Merchant began to talk again, "Once you've finished writing the code, you'll put the knife on the floor. It's made of a special material that allows you to travel through space and time."

"I'm going to be teleported to a place where you'll be waiting for me." Koushiro concluded, as if he was thinking in loud voice.

"Yes! After you give me the ring, I'll destroy the statue and everything will be just fine."

**End of flash-back**

_He's going to destroy the statue and said that everything would be fine after that. It must mean that I won't get affected by the curse. He could have mentioned it, though. Just like he could have told me about the truth behind the code that seals Barbamon. Well, I think there's no reason to worry about that now. Soon this job will be over. I still wonder what he meant when he said, after that, that I would find in this mountain what I was seeking for._ _I should put the plan in action now._


	6. The curse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Koushiro's life is in danger.

**Chapter 6: The curse**

Koushiro contemplated in silence the code he'd just draw around the pillar. It was not too long, which had allowed the boy to memorize it without difficulty. Moving the ring among the finger of his right hand, he managed to make the sequence of moves required to remove the knife from inside the hidden dimension in the jewelry.

 _I just need to put this ring on top of the statue and get out of here._ He thought to himself, trying to calm down. The truth is that it was very difficult to keep calm in that situation. So many things could go wrong, he tried not to think about them. Of all the things that he did in life, that would be most unwise. He needed all the luck he had.

Luck.

To think that not long before that word was what bothered him most. The comment he had heard from Yamato that night seemed now terribly credible. In the end, his plans were not so intelligent, but naive, that depended more on luck than anything else.

What could he expect? Who did he think he was? He was a ten years old child betting the lives of his friends in his strategies. Koushiro did not want to act irresponsibly anymore. He would not put his friends in danger again. In what situation was he now? He had left the group behind to search for Gennai, thinking that by going alone he would be putting only himself in danger. However, Tentomon ended up going with him... and almost died because of it.

Tentomon. It was for him that Koushiro needed to do that. It was the price set by the Merchant to save the life of the small insect digimon. What would happen to him if Koushiro did not obey? The merchant could take back the life that was saved? Tentomon would die before the eyes of his human partner?

The boy shook his head violently, as if trying to expel those thoughts by force. He had no time to think about it. Holding the knife firmly in one hand and the ring in the other, he approached the pillar.

Stretching his arm, Koushiro put the ring on top of the statue. The ring glowed slightly and sucked the figure of the Shinigami to its interior. Soon after that, the world went dark.

**Meanwhile**

"...Where are we?" Yamato asked, rubbing his head. He, Takeru, Patamon, Tsunomon, Tentomon and Impmon had fallen into a great saloon, after crossing the gate opened by Impmon. In front of them, there was a giant door sealed with chains and without being connected to anywhere.

"Is Barbamon behind this door?" Impmon asked, looking at the door and the circles on the floor, "Apparently, that redheaded kid haven't released the demon lord yet."

"Don't talk nonsense! As if Koushiro-han was going to do something like that!" Tentomon protested angrily, needing to be restrained by Takeru and Yamato.

"Tentomon, we should focus on searching for Koushiro now, understand? Let this guy go." Yamato said, trying to calm the insect. Suddenly, they heard the sound of someone falling and having difficulty in breathing in a corridor connected to the saloon. Fearing that it could be their friend, Yamato, Takeru, Tentomon and the others rushed to the scene. However, what they found was a Digimon with tentacles and a large brain gasping on the ground. On his chest there was a drawing of a figure covered by a black cloak, which Impmon recognized in horror.

"The mark of the Shinigami." The small black Digimon whispered; his large eyes were glazed and he remembered a dark piece of his past.

"That boy... with red hair... what did he do?" Vademon was questioning, full of hate, trying in vain to get up.

"Red hair?" Tentomon asked, "Are you talking about Koushiro-han? Where is he?"

Vademon indicated the end of the corridor with one hand. Yamato put the fallen Digimon on his shoulders before they went to the indicated place. Down the hallway there was a library.

 _It hurts so much...so... much…_ Koushiro realized he was lying with the face down on the floor. Something was burning in his chest, which made his eyes water. Few inches in front of him, he saw the ring and the knife. With difficulty, he stretched his left hand to reach the knife, held it up and stuck it on the ground. A strong glow emanated from the code he had written, however, instead of him, Koushiro, be taken to another place, it was the Merchant who came to where he was.

Entering the library, Tentomon and the others saw the eerie glow and went to the place where it came from. There, they found Koushiro on the floor, near a pillar and what seemed to be a grown man.

The newcomer had his face covered by a mask and was wearing a long black robe with a hood covering his head, and he was also wearing gloves of the same color on his hands.

"Merchant," Vademon was the first to speak, pushing Yamato away and walking toward the being dressed in black, "What are you planning?"

"Vademon, how are you?" The Merchant greeted cheerfully, "Long time no see."

Surprisingly, Vademon started laughing hysterically, "Ha ha ha, I knew something was wrong with your sudden desire to free master Barbamon. What do you want? Where is the statue of the Shinigami?"

"Here." The Merchant said, picking up the ring from the ground, "Very good job, Koushiro. Now that you did everything that I said, consider the debt of I saving the life of your friend Tentomon duly paid."

 _Debt for saving my life? What is he talking about?_ Tentomon asked himself. He wanted to help Koushiro as quickly as possible, but something was causing in him fear of approaching the Merchant. The man in black smashed the ring in his clenched fist, leaving the silver powder fall from his hand then.

"It's the end of the statue of the Shinigami." He said happily.

"What... did you do? "Vademon desperately asked, "Without that statue... the curse will kill me and the boy in 48 hours!"

Shock went through the hearts of everyone present there. Koushiro did not believe that.

"Hey, Merchant," the redhead said with a trembling voice, "What is he saying? You told me that everything would be fine if the statue was destroyed."

Vademon launched a furious glance to Koushiro, "So you knew he'd do THAT?"

"Fu fu fu fu, what is that look of astonishment, Koushiro?" The Merchant questioned, laughing, "The statue will not make any more victims, that's what I meant when I said that everything would be fine. Do not tell me you understood something else. Didn't you stop to think about your situation? If it was to pay for the life of your friend, it was obvious that you should lose yours."

Koushiro paled deadly. Suddenly it was as if the world was no longer real and he was plunging into a nightmare. _I will die...within 48 hours...I will die..._

"Onii-chan... what he said... Koushiro-san will...?" Takeru asked, startled. Yamato could not answer anything. _This is not really happening, is it?Koushiro can't die...this can't happen...I have to do something...I need to do something..._

Tentomon was static, in a complete state of shock. His thoughts were confused _. Koushiro-han is going to die because of me? This is happening because he saved my life?_

"You really are a disgraceful thief, Merchant." Impmon said dryly.

"I did not realize you were there, Impmon. Are you still mad at me for what I have taken of your master? It was a commercial exchange, I did not steal anything." The Merchant said, without changing the tone of his voice.

"How dare you say that you did not steal anything?" Impmon inquired with anger, "You took away all the knowledge that she had... everything she had researched during her lifetime... AND SHE DIED ANYWAY!"

"Apparently you are another one that can't interpret things right." The Merchant said, "The desire of your master was not to survive the curse. She had a wise and noble soul, something that someone like you are not able to have. Someone whose digitama was hidden in this mountain for so long, would be able to understand something so complex?"

"The digitama hidden in this mountain?" Vademon was surprised to hear that, looking at Impmon with bewilderment, "then... he is... Bel-"

A round black stone of the size of a chewing gum hit Vademon in the chest, right in the place where the curse mark was. The one who had thrown the stone, the Merchant, spoke after that:

"Passage of accelerated time: 48 hours."

Vademon felt a monstrously burning pain in his body, which made him fall to the ground, writhe and scream in agony. Black flames began to wrap his body as the shouting increased. Yamato hugged Takeru against his body, preventing him from seeing that. All the others who were at the scene witnessed his death helplessly. After a few seconds, the fire was gone along with the body of Vademon.

"The curse should to do that to him only 48 hours from now, but I had to speed up his time. Vademon almost said something that Impmon could never know." The Merchant explained, as if he was finding the situation amusing, looking at Impmon then, "I should charge a price, but I feel generous today, so I'll give this information to you without requiring payment: What your Master asked to me, in exchange for her knowledge, was that you should never find out who you really are."

"What?" Impmon was speechless. The Merchant picked up the knife from the ground and kicked out Koushiro from the area where the code was drawn on the floor. Yamato and Takeru ran to the redhead to see if he was okay.

"I'm leaving now, you know how to get back, right?" The Merchant was about to throw the knife down and teleport when Tentomon shouted:

"WAIT!"

Silence filled the room. Trembling, the insect continued: "Merchant, I want you to kill me."

"What?" Patamon and Gabumon spoke at once.

"Tentomon," Koushiro protested, "don't talk such nonsense!"

"I'm not talking nonsense!" Tentomon cried. "Koushiro-han is going to die to pay for my life, so if I die..."

"NO! I WILL NOT LET YOU DO THAT, TENTOMON!" Koushiro shouted in despair, relying on Yamato to stand up. The Merchant began to laugh.

"WHAT ARE YOU LAUGHING AT, BASTARD?" This time it was Yamato who cried.

"Even in this situation, Koushiro still wants to protect his friends. What a noble heart he has. Unfortunately, Tentomon, your death will not prevent your friend's. The only way he can save himself is by breaking the code sealing the door at the saloon and defeating Barbamon." The Merchant said cheerfully, "Of course, there is a chance he fails and releases one of the beings that almost destroyed this world in the past. But perhaps Koushiro is a lucky boy. Now I'm really leaving. Bye!"

The Merchant threw the knife on the floor, the code shone and he disappeared.  
Among those remaining in the library, several minutes passed before anyone spoke again. Impmon suggested that they should return to the hut.


	7. What one cannot understand

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Takeru and Yamato learn the truth. Tentomon confronts his partner.

**Chapter 7: What one cannot understand**

"When Tentomon and I were on the verge of death, in the desert, I heard him asking me if I wanted him to save us if I paid a price. At the time I hadn't realized that he was the owner of the voice that sent me to the mountains. When I woke up in his carriage, Tentomon was inside a sphere of energy… the Merchant told me that he had stopped Tentomon's flow of time and then would make it go back to before he had been poisoned, saving his life. The Merchant made me drink a weird whine that would prevent me from telling anyone anything about him without his authorization… I don't know how I'm able to talk about it now." Koushiro narrated. He was back to the hut with the others, and was lying on the ground due his weak state. It was hard to move and to breathe; his skin was pale and dark circles had appeared under his eyes; the mark of the Shinigami was visible in his chest despite him wearing his orange shirt. Around him were Tentomon, Yamato, Takeru, Tsunomon and Patamon. Impmon was at the hut's entrance, receiving some sunlight that partly hid his deep serious face. Despite been not so close, Impmon could hear everything and explained to Koushiro what he didn't understand.

"You received a curse of Death, it cancels any other previous 'curse' you had before. That's why you can talk about the Merchant now."

"So it was because of it that Koushiro-san didn't tell Tentomon anything." Takeru concluded, but nobody agreed with him. The young boy was a little scared to see the tense expression of his brother, even Tentomon, whose face didn't allow any expression, was definitely tenser than ever before.

"The price I had to pay was to go to that sanctuary, pick the statue of the Shinigami and give it to him to destroy it. I didn't know anything about the curse, just that a Demon Lord called Barbamon was sealed there. Even after I got to know the rest of the story, I couldn't go back. I didn't know what the Merchant would do to Tentomon if I didn't do what he had ordered. He said that everything would be fine then… I really didn't know that he was planning to let me die or that Vademon would…" Koushiro went silent for a moment. He was staring at the ceiling, unable to look at the others. Nobody really inquired him about what had happened, but he decided to tell them because he felt he owed them an explanation. However, it was really hard for the boy to tell them all that and the fact that the only ones who were speaking to him were Impmon and Takeru wasn't helping.

"You knew something about Vademon?" Impmon questioned with a bit of interest.

"The Merchant told me that he used to be a serve of Barbamon and that he would lead me to where the statue was if I told him that I had been sent to free Barbamon. Nothing else. I did everything the Merchant told me to do with the odd tools he gave me: a black knife that along with a code could break the space-time tissue and get me to where the Merchant was… even though it was him who showed up… and a silver ring that had a dimension hid in it, to where I sent the statue." The red-haired boy concluded. Once again, it was Takeru who said something:

"That Merchant guy said… that if Koushiro-san broke the code of the sanctuary's saloon and defeated Barbamon, he would live. Impmon, that yellow notebook where you found out how to go to the sanctuary, could it have some clue of how to break that code?" Takeru was speaking with more confidence now. It was obvious that Koushiro could be saved, they just needed to defeat a bad Digimon, like they had done dozens of times before _. It's going to work, everything will be alright, I believe it._ However, nobody seemed to share Takeru's positive thinking.

Impmon jumped to where the yellow notebook, that used to be his master's diary, was lying on the floor, grabbing it protectively.

"What kind of bad joke is this?" Impmon questioned, looking at Takeru as if the boy was insane, "My duty is to avoid that Barbamon ever comes back to this world. I will not allow you to even try to break that code and put the world in danger just for that human's sake!"

Takeru was expecting that his brother or Tentomon would protest, but nobody said anything. _What's happening to them?_ He wondered, restarting to talk, "We are the chosen children. We've defeated bad Digimon before, we can-"

"Do you know what a Demon Lord is, kid?" Impmon questioned; his eyes full of fury, "A long time ago, in an age whose registers are rare, the Demon Lords almost destroyed the Digital World. The horror they spread… the deaths… it's beyond your imagination. The History behind that was erased… only few individuals know about them in order to avoid that anyone try to bring them back! I can't allow you to do such a reckless thing like breaking the code that seals Barbamon!"

Takeru was feeling his hope leaving him against his will. _I can't give up, I just can't… but why am I the only one protesting here? Brother? Koushiro-san? Why?_

"Barbamon only needs one more victim." Impmon began to talk again, "Every individual who has broken his code was sent to the dimension where that Demon is captive. There, the individual is supposed to prove that he's wiser than Barbamon. If the individual fails, he or she will be devoured by the Demon… until now, 99 have failed. When Barbamon devours the 100th victim, he will break free."

The smallest boy trembled after hearing that; Patamon noticed it and flew to his partner's head, asking "Takeru, are you okay?" The human didn't reply, he turned to his left to see his brother. Yamato was facing the floor and trembling, causing worry to Tsunomon. Meanwhile, Koushiro was still staring at the ceiling and Tentomon was looking at nowhere, apparently. Takeru felt his blood boil.

"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?" The young boy yelled, shedding tears and making everybody look at him in shock, "How can you be so silent? Don't you understand what's going on here? Koushiro-san might die… i-if we don't do anything… and Impmon is trying to stop us… why nobody is saying anything? ONII-CHAN, SAY SOMETHING!"

"Takeru," Yamato finally managed to talk, "it's not that we don't want to help Koushiro! Of course we want! We'll find a way to help him, but… sometimes we have to stop and think about what we're doing… what we're going to do. We can't be reckless."

The little boy looked at his brother as if he was about to cry. _What is he saying? Stop? Stop for what? If it was Taichi-san here… Taichi-san would definitely do something quickly; he wouldn't be wasting time. Onii-chan, what's wrong with you?_

"Takeru, we are going to save Koushiro, I swear to you," Yamato spoke more firmly, "but we have to plan everything cautiously. This situation is extremely dangerous."

Koushiro decided that he couldn't stay silent anymore. He sat on the floor and looked to his friends.

"Do you feel better now?" Tentomon questioned. That was the first time the insect had spoken since they had returned to the hut; his voice lacked vitality, just like his movements, that were a lot slower than usual. It was as if he had been under a spell that made him not feel anything.

The fourth grader didn't reply to Tentomon. Instead, he told the others what he thought:

"Impmon is right. That code can't be broken… I can't put the Digital World in danger just to save myself."

That single phrase broke something inside Tentomon. He didn't pay attention to what Yamato and Takeru were protesting vehemently. It was as if there was no sound in the world. He looked at the red haired boy in shock. His partner's hands were shaking and his eyebrows were contracted, showing that he was in pain… physical or emotional, maybe both. Tentomon didn't notice when he walked to the red-haired. It was as if some unknown force had dominated him. Few seconds later, he was face to face to his partner. The fourth grader looked at him painfully.

"Tentomon," Koushiro spoke, stretching his hand to touch Tentomon's face, until that moment, the insect hadn't noticed that he was crying, "please, don't cry, Tentomon, please try to understand. I just can't do that. I can't risk your lives, risk the Digital World and perhaps the Human World… I can't be so irresponsible. The Merchant told me that Barbamon, back in his time, collected more knowledge than anyone else. Everyone who defied him failed. I can't do that… it's impossible for me."

Koushiro fell to the ground in confusion. Tentomon had punched him on the chest, hard. Astonished, Yamato, Takeru, Patamon and Tsunomon asked why Tentomon had done that. He couldn't care less about them. All he cared about was the red-haired boy lying in front of him.

"You always decide everything by yourself. You never ask me my help or my opinion. You never bother to tell me anything." Tentomon was talking in low voice as the tears fell from his eyes, "I don't understand why. Maybe I've done something wrong, or maybe you just don't consider me worthy of hearing about the things that worry you. You push everybody away all the time. I thought… I seriously thought that… I'd be able to get closer to you. So I would be able to understand what happens in your heart… but I feel as lost as I felt the first time we met, Koushiro-han. Whenever you talk… whenever you look at me… I feel that you're hiding yourself from me. I'm… I'm so tired… I'm so damn tired of all this!"

"Tentomon, I…" Koushiro tried to reply, but he couldn't.

"I'm sorry if I'm not worthy of your trust. I know that nothing that I say has any meaning for you. I won't try to convince you… but I won't watch you die either!" Tentomon stated, setting flight and abandoning the hut.

"Tentomon, wait!" Takeru shouted, running after the insect with Patamon still on his head. Yamato went after his brother with Tsunomon, worried that Takeru might get lost.

"Heh, it's just us now." Impmon sighed, helping Koushiro to sit. The boy was staring at the floor, so the Digimon couldn't see his expression. Not too much time had passed for Koushiro to make a question to Impmon:

"Impmon, how did your Master die?"

The tiny black Digimon paled after hearing that.

"She… she died not to put the world in danger." Impmon replied, turning his back to the boy.

"There aren't many books here. What you're carrying now is a notebook, right? Was it the notebook of your Master?"

"It was her diary, she wrote many things here, but despite ways of breaking codes, it's all written in an unknown language. She was… she was very intelligent…" Impmon's voice cracked. It was too difficult for him to hold the tears. Koushiro noticed that the other was crying and felt bad over it.

"I'm sorry, Impmon. She was really precious to you, wasn't she?" Koushiro tried to comfort the other, who was shivering violently. After a while, Impmon turned to Koushiro and gave him an intense glance; his eyes were wet.

"You are going to die." Impmon said, "And you're saying such annoying things. You're just like her. You know… Tentomon, those kids and everybody who cares about you… they'll hate you for the rest of their lives."

"Huh?" Koushiro was very surprised to hear that. Impmon continued to talk:

"They'll hate you… because it's the only way to deal with it. Especially Tentomon… that guy will hate you in order to not go crazy because of the despair. The hate helps for a while, but then… it's as if a hole appeared in the heart and started to eat it. It's the most horrible thing in the world. He'll cry all the tears he has and then he'll blame himself for not stopping you, for not persuading you. He'll fall in a swirl pool of pain. If he gets out of it, he'll try to attach to something, anything… a duty… a mission… a wish… he'll do that hoping that if he accomplishes it, the sadness will go away. It's a very foolish thought, but it's all what he will be able to do."

"Why are you telling me these things?" Koushiro felt pain in his chest just by imagining what Impmon had described, "I had made my decision; I had chosen the right thing, why are you saying these things to me now?"

"I didn't have the chance to tell her anything," Impmon replied with determination, "she died without knowing what she had done to me. I think you should know how Tentomon and your other friends will feel after you die. You should know it, in respect for them. That's why I decided this. I'll tell you everything about my Master."


	8. What we want to protect the most

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Impmon speaks about his past. Yamato, Takeru and Tentomon decide to fight to save Koushiro's life.

**Chapter 8: What we want to protect the most**

**Impmon's POV:**

I don't really remember how I was born. The oldest thing I can remember is waking up in a bed. I couldn't move and I realized that hieroglyphs were written on my body when I looked down.

I had this body already. I was already Impmon.

And I was in this hut, but it was different back then. There were shelves full of books and some furniture. And she was alive.

She was there when I woke up. Her name was Taomon, a fox Digimon in priestess's clothes. She smiled kindly at me.

"Sorry for having sealed you that way. When your digitama broke, you started to evolve out of control. That wouldn't have a good result." She explained to me, removing the seal with a flick of her hand.

She never told me why it wouldn't be good if I evolved out of control.

I had no memories. I wondered if I had to go somewhere or if someone was waiting for me. However, I had a very strong feeling of emptiness. I felt sad and aimless, but she told me one thing:

"You could stay here with me and be my apprentice, if you want to."

I don't understand why she invited me to stay with her, but that made me happy. She seemed to enjoy my company. I learned many things from master Taomon, mainly about the Dark Age.

In a remote time when wars were common, a group of individuals conquered the world. They were the Demon Lords. The terror they spread was unprecedented. It is believed that at no other time, past or future, this world would face a threat like theirs.

When they were defeated, life had been almost eradicated from this world, as well as the records of their time. It was created a secret society in order to preserve the past and keep it hidden from other Digimon. Only the wisest could know about the Demon Lords and investigate them. The only thing I knew about this society was that my master was part of it.

She had moved to the mountain to investigate about Barbamon. What she wanted the most was to go to the sanctuary in the center of the mountain. After she researched a lot, she managed to go there.

I waited for her here.

When she returned home, master Taomon was weak and had on her chest something that I would find out later it was the mark of the shinigami.

Then she told me that the shrine was actually a trap and she had been cursed. She told me the story about defeating Barbamon through wisdom and that if she failed, she would be his last victim and the demon would be freed. I wasn't worried at the time.

"Master, then you only need to prove that you are wiser than Barbamon! It's simple! Nobody is smarter than you!"

But she didn't believe it. There was great sadness in her eyes.

"Impmon, I will not risk the safety of the Digital World just to save my life. I can't be so irresponsible."

I did not react well to that.

"What are you talking about, master? You can't be thinking on letting the shinigami erase your soul! You have to fight! You must live!"

She asked me to get closer to her and then hugged me. She hugged me tightly.

"You have a very good heart. Perhaps you have always had that heart, but have not found someone who believed in you. When we don't receive love, we become fearsome creatures, you know? I'm glad I loved you, Impmon. I'm sure you'll become great."

"I don't want to be great! I don't care about it! I JUST WANT THAT YOU LIVE!"

"I'm not above the world."

"YOU ARE MY WORLD, MASTER!"

I disengaged myself from her and realized that she was crying. So was I.

"Impmon, one day you'll understand. When you're older and wiser."

I ran out of there. I ran into the desert for hours until I got tired. After a while I started thinking.

_Master will die._

I didn't know what to do. I could only cry and curse her. I was angry at her for choosing to die. And I hated the Digital World for being the reason for her death.

_Why does she have to die for this world? She is so gentle, so intelligent, so beautiful, does she have to die? That's not right! It's not fair! Only the bad guys must die! Bad guys like the Demon Lords must die! If it wasn't for them, she would not die to protect the world._ _Does_ _the world deserve her death? What will the world do after she dies? Anyone other than me will care?_ _Will someone else weep for her? No! All Digimon that inhabit this wretched world will go on living._ _This world does not deserve her death... I will destroy the world! Destroy everything! I will kill everybody! There can't be a world in which she does not exist! She is the very world to me._

I fell asleep with those dark thoughts. I dreamed I was big and powerful and everyone looked at me in fear. I took others' lives so easily and enjoyed it. I burned villages and massacred everyone in my path. And that gave me so much pleasure.

_I have to destroy! I have to kill. I have to put an end to this cursed world._

Then I saw my master in my dream. She was just looking at me sadly. She said nothing.

And I killed her.

I woke up startled and saw that the sun was high in the sky. My body and my heart were heavy. Slowly I remembered the dream. I had machine guns... or were they my own arms? I could fly and blew black feathers when I did so.

That filled me with fear; a terror so profound that it made me want to cry.

Then I remembered the reason I was in the desert.

_Master will die._

I remembered the previous day.

_Master will die._

I started crying and shaking. And then I began to feel very angry and very contemptuous of myself. And I ran as fast as I could back to the hut.

As I ran, I thought:

_I would die to save her, I would die for her as many times as needed... one hundred times... a thousand times. I'd die every day if it could save her._ _Is my master_ _able to love the whole world?_ _Is she able to love even the evil Digimon? She loves even those who she never met? She loves the world so deeply to want to die for it?_

I sobbed uncontrollably and saw the mountain getting closer.

_I hate the world. I want to destroy it; but then I'd destroy the thing that my master loves; I know she would be sad if the world was destroyed. I can't help hating the world, but I will always love my master. I'll tell her before she dies..._

Finally I had reached the door of the hut. When I opened it, however, that was no longer master's hut. There was someone in a black cape and hood wearing a strange mask standing next to an empty bed. All the shelves had disappeared, leaving only master's diary.

"Impmon, right? You can call me Merchant, I came to do a business transaction with Taomon. If you had gotten here a little earlier, you could have seen her alive for the last time."

I can't explain what I was feeling at the time. I'm not so good with words. Just know that I did not move or speak. Just know that whatever I was feeling, it made me want to die.

"No need to worry, Impmon. I'll take care of all the knowledge she had. I don't need her diary. The price she paid was already more than enough."

He left and I stayed there, alone and motionless. Then I started screaming and hitting things. I punched and beat everything I saw ahead, and I kept shouting. I wanted to relieve that pain, but it was useless. The time came when I no longer had the strength to continue breaking things, nor to continue screaming. Maybe I didn't have any more tears left. I went lethargic for an unknown time.

_So I'll tell her before she dies, that I'll surely protect the world she loves so much and that I would never allow Barbamon to return._

**End of Impmon's POV.**

"After that, I tried to convince myself that she had done something heroic, and I should be proud of her. And I self-imposed a mission to myself to prevent someone to free Barbamon. But I could never convince myself. The truth is that I still hate the world. I thought that I lacked wisdom, so I got new books and started studying, but nothing changed. I hate the world and I feel angry at my master and myself. I could have done more to convince her... I should have tried it until the end instead of running away."

Impmon broke down in tears. Koushiro listened to everything with his head down.

"I think I'll look for your friends, it won't be good if they get lost." The little Digimon said, before getting up and walking away, leaving the diary behind. Without thinking right, Koushiro took the diary and opened it. To his surprise, on the last page there was a formula to break the code of the sanctuary.

_Why would she do this if she had planned to die?_

He then noticed the words written in an unknown language. Remembering suddenly a lesson that he took about Da Vinci in school, Koushiro grabbed his digivice and used the glass to reflect the words of the diary. Thus, he found out they were in English written backwards. Fortunately, he understood the English language.

As he read, his face grew paler.

Meanwhile, Takeru and Patamon finally managed to reach Tentomon, who had stopped to escape due to fatigue. It did not take long for Yamato and Tsunomon to reach them.

"Go away from here." Tentomon said weakly.

"Why did you run away, Tentomon? Koushiro-san needs you." Takeru said.

There was no response.

 _Is there anything I can do?_ Yamato wondered distressed.

"I don't care anymore," Tentomon finally answered.

"What do you mean when you say that you don't care? You're crying, Tentomon! Don't tell such lies!" Takeru protested.

"What difference does it make whether I care or not?" Tentomon asked. "This changes nothing. Koushiro-han is completely indifferent to me."

Yamato felt something pop in his head when he heard that.

"What idiocy is this, Tentomon?" Ishida questioned, annoyed. "Koushiro is indifferent to you? How can you say this knowing that all he did was for thinking about you? He cares too much about you and us! He cares too much about the Digital World too!"

"KOUSHIRO-HAN DOESN'T CARE!" Tentomon shouted, "If he cared about me, he wouldn't have done those things! He would have let me die instead of endangering himself, because he should know that I wouldn't bear to watch him die! If he cared, he would have been honest with me, and he would have let me help him instead of wanting to do everything himself and sacrifice himself!"

"You don't understand how it is!" Yamato said. "Not everyone knows how to deal with people. Not everyone can talk about problems or feelings. It may seem selfish to you now, but that does not mean he doesn't care."

"Koushiro-han just doesn't care about his life," Tentomon insisted, "I'm a Digimon. If I die, I can be reborn. Humans can't be reborn, can they? What he did was irrational!"

Yamato paled at that. After a moment, he said:

"It would be great if people could only rely on logic to make decisions. But life is not like that. We don't always make sense or are rational! But Koushiro took the decision that ultimately was not irrational. Despite it making us suffer, his decision to sacrifice himself for the Digital World was not wrong. In fact, he was very unselfish. I don't think I would have the same courage. What I can say with certainty is that he wouldn't do that if he didn't care."

Nobody spoke for a few minutes. The truth was that Tentomon knew all that. He knew that Koushiro cared too much about him and the others and that because of it he was in that situation.

_I'm so angry at Koushiro-han. Even though he's a good person... and that he's doing a very noble thing... I feel so angry at him. I wish I could hate him. I wish I didn't care anymore about him or forgot him. If I could do any of these things, my heart would not be hurting so much now. I would not be feeling so afraid..._ _but I'm just thinking a lot of nonsense. I don't want any of that. The only thing I want is for Koushiro-han to live._

"Oh, you are there!" Impmon, who had just arrived, said. "Stop wasting time here and come with me."

"I can't. I can't see Koushiro-han dying." Tentomon whispered.

"Who said that I came to get you to do that?" Impmon asked. "There is still time to make him change his mind."

Everyone looked incredulously at Impmon.

"Protecting the world is a beautiful thing to say," Impmon said with resolution, "but the truth is that you have to protect what is the most important for you. You, chosen children, are heroes, right? If that Demon Lord gets free, you can fight him, even if it is useless. But if that kid dies, there's no return. So, what do you want to protect the most at this moment?"

The answer was clear in their faces.


	9. Meeting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Koushiro faces the Demon Lord of Greed.

**Chapter 9: Meeting**

The known red light involved Koushiro as he spoke those words again. In his right hand he held the torn page from the diary of Impmon's master with the formula to break the code of the sanctuary. Soon, the light took the form of chains, which seized him and dragged him into the hole. Once he arrived at the sanctuary, he saw the ten meters tall black door attached to nothing and locked with chains. On the floor there were the symbols that formed six concentric circles. He would have to draw a new code on the symbols to open the door, which would take about half an hour. Due to his physical condition, Koushiro knew it would take much more. He felt very weak and had difficulty to move.

About two hours later, when there was little left to finish writing the formula down, the ceiling of the sanctuary was illuminated and Yamato, Takeru, Tentomon, Impmon, Tsunomon and Patamon appeared and fell from it. Koushiro stared at them as they stood up from the ground and ran in his direction.

"Koushiro! We had come to convince you to change your mind! But you seem to have changed your mind already." Yamato said nervously. In fact, everyone was very agitated and nervous, as if they were about to start crying.

"Koushiro-san, you have to fight! Everything will work out in the end, I'm sure of it!" Takeru appealed, his words were even more firm than his brother's.

"Yeah, Koushiro! Fight!" Tsunomon said.

"All chosen children are strong. Do not doubt yourself!" Patamon spoke with conviction.

Tentomon said nothing; he just looked at his partner. The two exchanged a silent look for long minutes. As neither of them spoke, Impmon asked a question to the boy:

"What made you change your mind?"

"In the diary of your master there were things written in English backwards. I think you should read them, Impmon."

"So it was the diary that suddenly made you want to fight for life?" Impmon asked, mildly interested. Koushiro serenely smiled before answering.

"Thanks to the diary I understood many things. I am very grateful to you and your master, Impmon." Koushiro then looked at all his friends present there and spoke from his heart. "I've been very coward and insecure. I try not to show it, then maybe you have never realized it. I'm afraid of many things, but I think my biggest fear is to fail. The strange thing is that this fear ends up making me commit more errors. My lack of confidence in my own ability led me to panic. I was afraid you would end up in danger because of my mistakes. I'd never forgive myself if that happened... I heard a conversation between Yamato-san and Sora-san before deciding to face the desert. It decreased my confidence considerably."

Yamato turned pale at that.

"You heard the conversation? I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"It's okay, Yamato-san. My plans have depended more on luck than anything else, anyway."

Tentomon looked at Yamato with resentment. Could it be that everything was caused by the blond boy? Takeru's brother desperately tried to explain.

"I didn't know that you were hearing, Koushiro! I had no idea how you really were! I never thought you could be worrying about others so much. You must have worried about us at all times and given your best to always help us! I had no right to say those things!"

"It's really okay, Yamato-san." Koushiro said more firmly. Soon after, he smiled and added, "I made several mistakes. There is no way to live without making mistakes. It's impossible. But I can't get paranoid about it. I can't stop acting because of the fear of making mistakes. That would not be fair to you guys. I must learn from my mistakes and improve, without giving up. I'm too tired of this fear. If I do not fight, it would be disrespectful to everybody who cares about me. I've been stepping on your feelings because of my cowardice for a long time and I apologize for that."

"Enough with the blah-blah-blah!" Impmon protested. "The way you talk, it seems that you will only face Barbamon to not make the others sad. What do you really want to do?"

Koushiro took a deep breath and looked at the faces of everybody. They were less agitated, but still visibly upset. There was a mixture of sadness and hope in their eyes. It was not possible to discern the feelings in the face of Tentomon, who still had not said anything.

"I want to protect the Digital World and everyone in it, especially my friends," he said. For a moment he had the feeling that Tentomon looked at him more closely, although there was no way to be sure, "but I also want to live. I want to discover many things and help everyone. I want to help to protect the Digital World and the real world. I want to laugh alongside my friends and my family. I want to have many adventures and calm days too. I want to do so many things I did not know before that I wanted to do. To achieve all this, I need to defeat Barbamon."

Tentomon suddenly flew toward Koushiro and embraced him tenderly, making the boy blush in surprise.

"Thank you." Was all Tentomon could say before starting to cry. Koushiro realized that it wasn't a cry of sorrow. After a moment, he gently got away from Tentomon and told everyone "it's time to go," before finishing writing the formula down.

Once he finished it, the concentric circles shone strongly, the chains that held the door disappeared and the door began to open. A very intense white light came from inside, temporarily blinding everyone. When they were able to see normally again, the door had been closed and Koushiro was gone.

When Koushiro's vision was normal once more, he found himself in a completely white space. Ten steps in his front there was a creature sitting on the floor. The Digimon had a pair of red wings on the back and wore a black and red cloak decorated in its upper part by rubies. He looked like an old man with a long beard and white hair. His skin was gray and he had red eyes. He also had large hands with sharp claws and was holding a staff with a skull with a red ball in its mouth in the tip. The creature imposed a terrifying presence.

"Are you my final victim? A human child, how nostalgic is this?" Barbamon spoke in a tone of derision. Koushiro trembled slightly. He was before an intimidating being. _This is a Demon Lord?_

"I'm here to prove I'm wiser than you." Koushiro said, mustering all the courage he had. Barbamon had a long and cruel laugh that made Koushiro shake one more time.

"Who do you think you are, kid? In front of whom do you think you are? I am Barbamon! No one in the Digital World has more knowledge than me! I read all existing books, I had all the treasures that I could muster, I was the right-hand man of Lucemon in our dominion over the world! How old are you, punk? How much knowledge do you think you have? You are just insignificant before me!"

"I'm not insignificant," Koushiro protested, trying to stop shaking, "you're nothing but a tyrant and murderer Digimon!"

Barbamon smiled wickedly, looking at the boy like a predator looking at a prey.

"So arrogant. Do you consider yourself better than me? All the people think high of themselves compared to a Demon Lord. You're nothing but trash. No one is superior to me and I always managed to prove it. I'll show it to you, boy."

Barbamon pointed his staff to Koushiro and shouted "Death Lure."

 _So dark._ It was the first thing Koushiro thought. Suddenly he was immersed in a complete and terrifying darkness. He did not feel the ground beneath his feet, which led him to the conclusion that he should be floating.

"Izumi Koushiro, ten years old. Interesting, so you're adopted." Koushiro heard the voice of Barbamon coming from all sides. Not knowing what was that place, not knowing the location of the enemy and not knowing where he was made him feel fear. However, that line of the Digimon caused the boy's fear to increase exponentially.

 _He can invade my mind!_ Koushiro concluded, trembling.

"An adopted child is a stain on the name of a family. You live with two people who are nothing to you and you're a source of expense to them. Not unlike a parasite."

Those words were hurting Koushiro enormously, but he knew he could not believe those things. _He's just trying to disturb me... I have to resist. I can't let him beat me!_

"Who are your real parents, Koushiro? Where are they? Why are you not with them?"

_I don't know anything about them. I don't even know if they are still alive._

"You do not know. This feeling is horrible, isn't it? Not knowing is hopeless. You know there are so many possibilities. They may have abandoned you."

_Maybe they could not raise me... they could be poor..._

"Perhaps, Koushiro. And what if they were poor? They must have felt so much hate when you were born. I can even see them fighting. 'What shall we do with this nuisance now?' 'We can barely buy food for us!' 'This child must go!'"

Koushiro couldn't avoid imagining the scene, which made him want to cry, but he could not do that. _I can't let it affect me! He is making up these things!_

"Maybe they were not poor. Maybe your mother had been deceived by your father. He may have left her pregnant; she could still be very young and have many plans. Oh, what her family must have thought? 'This child will ruin our family!' 'We must get rid of the child!' What your mother must have thought? 'This child has destroyed my life. All my dreams are over!'"

_I have to stop imagining what he says! I must stop it! But within this darkness it is so difficult. Even if I cover my ears, his voice will still get in my head._

"You must have been abandoned in an orphanage. Poor baby... so alone. Then the Izumi found you. How did they choose you, among so many children? Maybe they decided through rock paper and scissors. Or they could have examined all the children and concluded that you were the least bad... like choosing tomatoes in a supermarket."

Koushiro felt his blood boil after hearing that. "They're not like that! DO NOT SPEAK ABOUT MY PARENTS THAT WAY!"

"Wow, now you reacted. Why are you infuriated?"

"Don't you dare speak ill of them!" Koushiro was shaking with anger. "They are the most loving and kind people in the world! I will not forgive anyone who speaks ill of them!"

"Loving and kind? Just because they raised you? Have you ever thought that they adopted you because they could not have their own children?"

Koushiro felt his heart becoming heavy. Barbamon laughed wickedly.

"I can see your soul, Koushiro. I'm just saying the things you have asked yourself a thousand times. It is expected that a couple has children, right? How would society see a couple who can't have any? They must have thought one night, 'Let's get a child and pretend it's our son.' 'Nobody can know that our child is adopted, that would be shameful.' 'No one will ever know it.'"

"That's not..." Koushiro had started crying and holding his head with both hands in despair. "It's all lies. My parents are not ashamed of me. They love me."

"If they are not ashamed, then why have they lied to you for so long, Koushiro?"

"They... they wanted to protect me... I heard when they said I needed to know, but it was too early... they didn't want me to suffer a shock... they were worried about me..."

"Was this what they really said?"

That question made Koushiro deadly pale. _What is he saying? I know what I heard. Is he playing a game with me?_

"What is the Truth, Koushiro? You've probably heard that a great part of the memory is made by the imagination. What if the conversation you heard was different? They may have said something so horrible that you had to suppress it to protect yourself. And so you invented the part that they were worried about you."

"Shut up," Koushiro could no longer bear it. His body was shaking uncontrollably and tears kept falling from his eyes.

"Maybe they said something quite different. 'Koushiro is so annoying and weird.' 'We should have adopted a better child, but how would we imagine he would be like this?' 'I wish I could exchange him for a better boy.' 'No one can know that we have adopted him.' 'Yes, that would be so shameful!'"

"SHUT UP!" Koushiro shouted. Never before had he felt so desperate. "THOSE ARE ALL LIES!"

"Really? Is it not you who is lying to yourself? You may have recorded the truth in your subconscious and therefore have become a good son for them. Maybe you forced yourself to think they were wonderful people and you're good to them out of gratitude, but you may know, deep down, that you need to be a good boy so they will not abandon you and get a better child."

"It's a lie... a lie... stop making me think of these things..."

"Do not feel bad, Koushiro. You're just a fragile child who tries to protect yourself from the Truth. Life is cruel. You had to build this false reality to survive, because you are not a strong and courageous person like your friends. You even believed that you were useful to them, but that's okay. They were lucky and managed to survive despite your faults. They are so nice and gentle; you must feel envious of your friends."

Koushiro winced, while hugging his knees and trembling. _Envy? Would I be envious of them? They are so happy. They don't need riddles and puzzles to avoid thinking about unpleasant things. They don't feel the need to know things. They laugh so easily... mainly Taichi-san..._

"I know it's horrible, but you can't avoid it, Koushiro. This is simply the nature of weak and inexperienced people. I've lived more than you. I have much more knowledge than you, then believe what I say. I can save you from this hell."

"Save me?" Koushiro asked as if in a trance. Barbamon's large hands appeared out of nowhere, one on each side of the boy, as if they were going to close on him and confine him.

"Yes, Koushiro. I can save you from pain, sorrow and agony. Just accept me as the wisest being that exists and agree to become part of me."

The large hands of Barbamon were about to confine Koushiro.

_I think I'm forgetting something important... what was it? What made me come here? It was something important..._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you may know, Barbamon is an official Digimon, despite not having appeared in the anime yet. Since I haven't read the mangas, I don't know exactly how his attack, Death Lure, works. So what you saw in this chapter was my interpretation.


	10. Departure

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Koushiro's crest glows for the first time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. This is an old story I had in ffnet and decided to bring here.

**Chapter 10: Departure**

_Day 1: I've established myself in the mountain where the disappearance cases have occurred. According to the data, this place used to have a gate to the secret sanctuary once used by the Demon Lords as base. I believe this might have something to do with the curse_ **_he_ ** _used against Barbamon as an ultimate revenge. It's about time to find out what this curse is exactly, how_ **_he_ ** _gained such power and why hasn't he killed Barbamon when he had the chance._

_Day 2: I found a sealed digitama in this mountain and I believe it may belong to one of the Demon Lords. This creature might bring great disaster to the Digital World if it is ever reborn, so I'll try to exterminate it with a code I'm studying._

_Day 23: My plan didn't work out and the creature was born and began to evolve. I managed to stop the evolution at child level. He had no memories at all. Afraid of what could happen if this creature ran away and regained his memories, I convinced him to stay with me and become my apprentice. It was a desperate act and I feel disgusted at myself for living with such a pest._

_Day 59: Impmon is not like I thought he would be._

_Day 73: This may be my greatest error, but I'm starting to believe this Demon Lord can become a good Digimon under my guidance. I investigated his evolution line and came to the conclusion that he must have been the Demon Lord of Gluttony, Belzebumon._

_Day 75: He can't become that slaughter maniac again. I won't let him become that._

_Day 82: I'm being irresponsible, I should kill Impmon, but I can't find the forces to do it. I'm putting his life above the Digital World. I'm so pathetic!_

_Day 90: I found out a way to go to the sanctuary._

_I don't understand anything anymore. What is this nonsense about giving Barbamon a chance to escape? Didn't_ **_he_ ** _hate him? What the hell is happening? I'm going to die if I don't prove that I'm wiser than that Demon Lord, but how could I be wise? I let another Demon Lord become my apprentice! I even began to love him!_

_Impmon ran away. He loves me. How can he love me so much? I'm so ashamed of everything. I don't think I deserve his love._

**_He_ ** _came here, I should refer to_ **_him_ ** _as Merchant from now on. He's nothing like what was told to us. He surely pursues a dark objective. Someone has to stop him, and someone has to stop Barbamon. I failed at everything and now all what I can do is protect Impmon the best way I can. If only I haven't loved him… I'm so scared. I don't want to die._

_Is it more important to be wise or to love? I was happy to love and to be loved by him. Maybe in the end I chose the wrong way to protect him._

_It's too late now. Sorry, Impmon._

"Something happened," Barbamon noticed. Koushiro had calmed down. "What is going on with him? I should check."

_She didn't realize something that was right in front of her. It was so obvious, so painfully obvious. Nobody had realized it. Neither I had… I had to see someone else taking that path to notice it. So ridiculously obvious!_

And then a purple light came from Koushiro's crest and the darkness was destroyed. Barbamon saw, astonished, his whole dimension crumbling down.

"IT'S KOUSHIRO! AND THERE'S SOMEONE ELSE!"Yamato screamed. The strong purple light spread in the saloon. The giant door was destroyed. When the light became less intense, the fourth grader was seen standing in front of a big digimon who had a hole in his chest. Koushiro no longer had the shinigami's mark.

"How did this happen?" Barbamon asked, looking at his wound in horror.

"As I thought, when you were imprisoned, you were at the verge of death, Barbamon." Koushiro commented without joy.

"Barbamon?" Impmon questioned in shock. "THAT BASTARD IS BARBAMON?"

The old Demon Lord looked at Impmon and felt a light spark passing through his soul. _I never thought I'd see him again._

"The code was a way for you to avoid death. You had your time frozen and if you had devoured 100 souls you could have saved your life." Koushiro said. "But now that I defeated you, your time is running again and you're going to die."

"How did you figure this out? My wound wasn't cof… cof… visible in that dimension." Barbamon questioned, coughing. He was visibly dying.

"All the Demon Lords died. You said yourself that Lucemon was the leader, but he died too. You couldn't be stronger than him, but you had a lot of knowledge; I bet you had enough to escape from death, so you prepared all this."

Barbamon laughed viciously, startling everybody. Yamato and Takeru, unconsciously, stepped back a little.

"Onii-chan, it's over, right? Then why isn't that digimon dead already?" Takeru asked, afraid, but Yamato didn't have an answer. Meanwhile, Impmon stared at Barbamon with ferocity and Tentomon was heading towards Koushiro.

"All my friends died." Barbamon said. "I was the brain of our group, Lucemon's right-hand man, but I couldn't save any of them. Even if I wasn't supposed to save anyone, I felt despair. I was alone, I had lost my purpose and I was dying. You were wrong in one point, though. I didn't do this to myself. I merely was pathetic enough to grab the hand of my enemy; to accept the help of the one who killed my dearest friend and stole his Omniscience Mask. I knew he hated me and wanted to make me suffer, but I didn't care. I lost myself at the time of my death, I betrayed everything in what I believed and the ones I loved because of my fear. All the 99 who had come before had lost themselves either. Even if in the beginning they believed they were better than me, at the end they were desperately afraid of dying and willing to do anything to avoid it; or questioning everything in life. I almost got you, but you escaped at the last second."

"If I was going to die for something as subjective as the sake of the world, I would end up failing. You could show me all my faults and I would doubt everything. It wasn't a matter of how much knowledge or logical reasons someone had. Nothing of that comes to mind when you face death. I needed a honest reason." Koushiro explained.

"And that would be?" Barbamon questioned in a weak voice.

"I want to live to be with the ones I love and help them, and I had to do everything I could to achieve that. I just decided that after reading a diary. You, by the other hand, don't really have the desire to live. You have no friends and no purpose despite the knowledge you have. You're just being moved by the fear of death." The boy continued.

"You didn't know me at all. Your only plan was to do all you could to stay alive." Barbamon stated.

"I didn't need any other plan than that. I could only find an answer by facing the problem directly." Koushiro concluded with a small smile. Surprisingly, Barbamon smiled too.

"That sounds right. I'll tell you something before I disappear… the one who did this to me and is now known as Merchant… in reality he is a former-"

Red chains came from Barbamon's wound and involved him, vanishing right after. Without warning, the Digimon went berserk. He tried to attack Koushiro, but Tentomon evolved just in time to grab the boy and fly with him to where his friends were.

"What happened to him?" Yamato asked, trying to understand.

"It must be the Merchant' doing." Koushiro replied, serious. Everybody noticed something different in the boy's eyes as he saw Barbamon coming after him again. "Impmon, please take my friends out of here."

"You can't fight him by yourself!" Yamato protested, but Koushiro was determined.

"It must be me, Yamato-san. Kabuterimon, let's go." He said, climbing on his partner's head.

Yamato tried to stop Koushiro, but Impmon didn't let him do so.

"It's his battle now."

"I'm going to stay here." Yamato stated. Takeru grabbed his brother's hand.

"It doesn't feel like the battles we're used to have. It's different, Onii-chan."

"Yeah," Yamato replied. In the end, nobody left.

By now, Kabuterimon was right above Barbamon. Koushiro grabbed his glowing crest as he looked down to the Demon Lord.

_It's odd to feel empathy for you now. You've done so many atrocious things and didn't show any sign of regret. You're only sorry for betraying your beliefs. You thought you were right almost the whole time, didn't you? I wonder what your motivations were. No, there's no point in doing this now. All I can feel now is some level of respect; all what I can do is to free you. The rest is pointless._

Kabuterimon evolved to Atlurkabuterimon and attacked Barbamon with his horn right in the demon's fatal wound.

_I really hope you can have peace._

**Flash-Back:**

It was back when I was a child that I met that child angel called Lucemon.

"What do you want with me? Are you going to kill me because I'm a virus?" I asked.

"Don't compare me with those foolish Vacines and Datas. I came here to ask your help." He replied.

"My help? What are you talking about?" I inquired. Lucemon showed me a mask he was holding.

"This is one of the great treasures in the Digital World, given to me by a Sage, it allows me to know things about the future and other universes. I even found out about a fool who's the weakest of six gods who've discovered how to break the space-time continuity. Someone intelligent like you could develop this knowledge and even discover a way to control time."

"Why would I do that?" I asked. Lucemon gave me a beautiful smile and said:

"I want to save this rotted world where Digimon fight Digimon because of an attribute. For this, I must kill almost all the population in this world and modify the memory of every individual to prevent the nonsensical hatred to spread."

"Wouldn't they just start hating each other again after being reborn, anyway?"

"No, they'd have a real enemy to hate, an enemy who'd attack without distinction. Also, they would be saved by heroes from another world, so they can't classify them in attributes. A few Digimon, good-hearted ones, will be left to tell the story about the heroes who saved the world. We're going to be the enemies who'll be destroyed for the greater good. Once we're reborn, we won't remember anything."

"What makes you think I'd agree to die for the sake of others, Lucemon?"

"What would you like to have?"

"I want everything! I want great power and all the knowledge in the world! If I had those things, I'd die happy!"

"I'll give you those things and also the ones you seek the most."

"Heh, and what would they be?"

"Comrades who'll care for you and for whom you'll care about and eventually someone who'll really understand you."

**End of flash-back**

"To think it would be a human brat… an enemy… but I feel I understand you too." Barbamon suddenly spoke, looking in Koushiro's eyes and smiling, while fading away. "We both did the best for our idiotic friends… it wasn't a total waste of time… to wait this long to meet you."

Nobody said anything else.

After that, they returned to the hut and rested. Hours later, Yamato woke up.

"Maybe Taichi and Jyou are already waiting for us now, we should go." Yamato said as he and his brother, along with their partners, were preparing to leave the hut. "Where is Koushiro now?"

"He said he had something to talk to Impmon, they're at the base of the mountain already." Tentomon informed.

Takeru frowned lightly. "Koushiro-san is going to be okay, right?"

"Of course," Yamato stated, "and we'll be there for him any time, just in case."

Koushiro and Impmon were staring at the desert.

"So you're going to look for the Society?" The boy asked.

"I have to know everything... since my duty here is over, it's time to go." Impmon replied darkly.

"You haven't said anything since you read her diary again. Are you alright?" Koushiro asked in concern.

"She wasn't perfect as I imagined, but somehow I feel a little better by knowing that. The important thing was that she loved me, I guess."

"What about the other thing?"

"Are you asking me if I'm okay to know that I was a Demon Lord in the past? That I was the thing I've despised the most in my entire current life?" Impmon asked surprisingly calm. "I don't have an answer for that. Maybe I'll just pretend this is a lie; maybe I'll grow wiser and accept this without taking the wrong path; maybe I'll eventually lose my mind and become a slaughter again and you guys will have to kill me in the future."

"You don't need an answer right now; I just thought you had the right to know the truth." Koushiro said.

"As a chosen child, you should kill me here and avoid the worst scenario where I'd destroy the Digital World." Impmon pointed out.

"I prefer to have faith in you and see what happens." Koushiro said that with a smile.

"You're such a fool." Impmon concluded. He grabbed the bag where he had put everything he owned and walked into the desert.

"He's leaving already? I wanted to say good-bye." Takeru said when he and the others met Koushiro at the base of the mountain.

"I hope we'll see Impmon again; he was a nice guy in the end." Tentomon commented, landing on his partner's head.

"Let's go meet our friends now." Yamato said, looking at Koushiro's thoughtful face.

"Yeah." The redheaded boy agreed.

At a different place, in a carriage, the Merchant studied a digitama on a wooden table, next to a glass of wine.

"I finally got my revenge against you, Barbamon, though I expected you to have a more miserable death. And I finally got to know what kind of person Koushiro is... or what he used to be."

The Merchant remembered the day when he was left completely alone, when most of the Demon Lords were dead and the new strongest digimon had turned against his group. He had been found by Lucemon, who took him to his palace only to give him a mask and commit suicide in his front. Confused, the boy put the mask on and saw _him_.

A child with red hair close to his age, who was chained to a chair and was drenched in blood.

"Who are you?" He asked, afraid. The other looked up to him and smiled wickedly.

"I'm the beginning and the end of the Digital Worlds. I have te power to bend reality itself. I'm known by different names, mainly Homeostasis. But I was once called Koushiro."

"Are you like a God?" He inquired.

"I'm nothing but an unlucky child." The other contested.

"But you said you had power! Can you bring Onee-chan and the others back to me?" He pleaded.

"I could. But I don't want to do that." The other had a taunting tone. "I enjoyed seeing them being betrayed by their friends and being murdered."

His hatred was greater than anything he had ever felt. At the same time, lots of information entered his mind, including the location of an almost dead Barbamon.

"What is happening to me?!" He asked, afraid.

"The so called 'omniscience mask' you're wearing is deeply connected to me. Because of that, it gives you access to all the knowledge I've accumulated in the different universes I've lived. You might even find out how to control me." The bloody child explained.

"I'll certainly do that! I'll acquire all the knowledge of the world and I'll use it to dominate you! I'll force you to bring Onee-chan and my friends back to life!" He promised.

"I'll be waiting for that." The other chuckled. "Let's see who will subdue the other."

The Merchant always went back to revisit that memory. He had hated Koushiro since before he had known the chosen child with that name. The man took off his mask and saw his reflex on the glass of wine nearby. He had a cruel look on his young face; his eyes were like ice and his hair was gray like his soul.

"Every sacrifice I'll make will be worthy. Enjoy your pathetic existence while you can, _Koushiro_."


End file.
